A state judge has awarded more than a $1 million to a teacher who sued the Rapides Parish School District after she was fired in 2001.
Judge Thomas Yeager issued his decision Thursday.
The Town Talk reports (http://townta.lk/2d9z6FA ) Patricia Powell was a teacher at Tioga Elementary School in January 1998 when her photo and comments were included in a Town Talk article about the settlement that former Superintendent Betty Cox had reached with the district.
Cox had a short and volatile tenure as superintendent. She was hired in 1994, but suspended a year later. Cox left with a $1.17 million settlement in January 1998.
Powell alleged that the district took its revenge on her for her published comments, closing her gifted class at Tioga, moving her to several other schools and repeatedly harassing her.